On July 24, NASA made the first 4K video stream from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back available to the media.
A group at NASA’s Cleveland-based Glenn Research Center collaborated with the Air Force Research Lab and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program to test new technologies that may eventually be utilized to produce 4K live video footage of Artemis Moon landings.
The data was transmitted to Deep Space and back via laser communications, which can carry up to 100 times the data carried by radio waves. A Pilatus PC-12 aircraft carrying a portable laser terminal was positioned underneath and used to transmit data to an optical ground station located in Cleveland while flying over Lake Eerie.
Data was then sent to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, via an Earth-based network.
The data was transmitted by scientists 22,000 miles from Earth using infrared light signals to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). The signals were received via the ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload.. Data was then relayed back to Earth as a result.
Testing for Functionality and Cost-Efficiency in Flight
When the space technology was tested in flight rather than on the ground, the team was able to find problems more quickly, and with each flight test, the researchers were able to improve the functionality of the technology. This is not only more economical than doing tests in orbit, but testing in flight also guarantees that novel concepts have a higher chance of making it from the lab into production.
In addition, a novel system called High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN) developed at Glenn contributed to the infrared light signals’ ability to pass through cloud cover.
Dr. Daniel Raible, the principal investigator for the HDTN project at Glenn, described this as a “tremendous accomplishment” and mentioned expanding on the experiment’s success to enable HD video conferencing for Artemis astronauts in the future.
Researchers are testing 4K video streaming capabilities from the PC-12 aircraft for the rest of July, even though the ILLUMA-T payload has since been removed from the Space Station. The goal is to develop technology that will allow astronauts to livestream in 4K on their return to the lunar surface in future Artemis missions.
